Page:Poems Hoffman.djvu/377

SUPPOSE

Suppose the sunbeams should say to the roses,
"You are wasting your time, oh, what are you worth?
Each useless rosebud the morn uncloses
Should bloom a sunbeam to light the earth."

And the roses, drooping their heads of beauty,
Should wither and die ere the day began,
And say, "Oh, the sunbeams can do their duty,
We have no part in the world's great plan!"
But the roses were never made for shining,
Any more than the sunbeams to breathe perfume;
So each, without murmuring or repining,
Does its part in dispelling earthly gloom.

O the roses! the roses! they cannot lighten
A hemisphere with a flood of light,
But they do their best in the world to brighten
Gloom that is darker than earthly night.

DEVELOPMENT

A naturalist watched with a wondering awe,
A winged beauty struggling its way to the light;
Such strivings, and pantings, and strugglings, he saw
Then, gorgeous wings spread, without blemish or flaw.

Another cramped life was in strife to expand,
The naturalist opened the close, cruel door,
And the inmate crept out by the help of his hand;
But a colorless creature the naturalist scanned.

Dull, lusterless wings, undeveloped, and small,
And the naturalist cried: "Even so 'tis with man,
We must struggle and strive, we must rise when we fall,
Life's a struggle for light, or 'tis nothing at all!"

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